Some 16 per cent of the 9,673,000 Australians aged 15-69 years who worked at some time during the year ending February 2000, had changed their employer or business, or changed the locality of their work in that period, according to results released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
This level of job mobility was slightly higher than that recorded in the year ending February 1998 and the same as in February 1996.
Some 81 per cent of those who were job mobile changed their employer or business at least once, while 19 per cent changed the locality of their work only. Other findings show:

Job mobility was highest for those aged 20-24 years (27 per cent) and lowest for those aged 55-69 years (6 per cent); and

those who lived with their families were less job mobile than those who did not live with family members (15 per cent compared with 23 per cent) .

Of the 8,037,000 people who were working in both February 1999 and February 2000, 84 per cent had been in their current job for one year or more;11 per cent had changed their job but not their occupation major group; while 5 per cent had changed both their job and their occupation major group. Six per cent of these people had changed industry major group during that period.

Almost a quarter of people working in February 2000 had been in their current job for 10 years or more. A larger proportion of men had been in their job for 10 years or more (27 per cent) than women (21 per cent).
There were 2,163,700 people who ceased a job during the year ending February 2000. Some 68 per cent voluntarily left their jobs, compared with 64 per cent in 1998. A further 18 per cent lost their jobs due to retrenchment compared with 21 per cent in 1998.

Details are found in Labour Mobility, Australia, February 2000 (cat. no. 6209.0) available from ABS bookshops. The summary of the publication may be found on this site. If you wish to purchase a copy of this publication, contact the ABS Bookshop in your capital city.